Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein (7) celebrates with fans in the stands after the NCAA college football game against TCU, Nov. 10, 2012, in Fort Worth, Texas. Klein ran for two touchdowns and No. 3 K-State bolstered its BCS national title hopes with a 23-10 victory at Big 12 newcomer TCU.

Published Nov. 12, 2012

Dealing with the pressure of sitting first in the Bowl Championship Series standings rests in the approach.

For Kansas State, that means no peeking ... at any standings, any rankings or any computer matrix. And by all means, no panoramic view from college football’s mountaintop.

“Honestly, I don’t pay attention to the rankings,” center B.J. Finney said after K-State dumped TCU, 23-10, on Saturday. “The number is just a number. You get caught up in it and you can lose track of who you are and how you got there.

“So we’ve got to be better, we’ve got to play better and we’ve got to execute better.”

Even when — let this sink in, now — K-State is, for the first time, No. 1 in what matters most to college football, the BCS standings.

Just two games remain. Win them and the Wildcats, 10-0 overall and 7-0 in the Big 12, will advance to the BCS championship game. Their move into first became official Sunday.

“It feels a little different getting to No. 1,” said running back Angelo Pease, “but at the same time you’ve got to keep doing what you were doing to get to this point. We’re really good, but we’ve got a whole lot we can do to get better than we are now.”

Still, K-State is not quite conducting its business as usual. At least not publicly.

Collin Klein, a captain whose message all season has warranted his own formal setup during weekly press sessions, has not been made available for interviews since Oct. 27 after K-State stomped Texas Tech.

He went the distance engineering the TCU win, but was not as sharp as usual after suffering an injury a week earlier.

Klein’s silence is not a huge deal, unless his absence irritates Heisman Trophy voters to the extent it could influence their ballots.

Then again, the Cats are not about individual honors ... even though the Heisman is the most celebrated award in all of sports and would make for a nice centerpiece in the Vanier Complex.

The objective is to win out. Awards can then be accepted, including, perhaps, the BCS crystal.

Yet can K-State escape pressure?

There was a time when the Flint Hills would have been the perfect outpost. Now, cyberspace — loved it when Bill Snyder revisited that term — can beam into any place, any time.

Still, the Cats have Snyder to keep them grounded. And this bunch has, thus far, conformed to his precautions with old-school precision.

“We try to stay out of the media, stay out of the Twitter,” Pease said, “It can interfere with where we’re trying to get to, so we try to stay out of all that.”

They said they did not learn of the loss that dropped Alabama out of the top BCS spot until after the systematic, no-frills win at TCU.

“Coach Snyder doesn’t like to talk about that kind of stuff,” kicker Anthony Cantele deadpanned.

No, he doesn’t. Snyder hardly addressed the development after his team stoned the Horned Frogs.

He did note, in slightly more detail, a strong defensive effort, a conservative offensive approach and a solid contribution from special teams.

And, the need to get back to work. Pronto.

“Nothing changes,” vowed linebacker Arthur Brown. “We just have to continue with what we’ve done and that is to prepare as well as we can. Coaches are always on us to do that.”